ARTIST VOLODYMYR MAKEYEV LIVES IN A TIME OF LOVE

Volodymyr Makeyev lives in Simferopol. As it often happens to talented Ukrainian masters, his paintings are little known to viewers in his home country, though they have been on display in the museums and private collections in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Russia. The Kep art gallery in Simferopol and the Irena art gallery in Kyiv are perhaps the only places in Ukraine where his works can be found.

Volodymyr Makeyev is a philosopher. He calls his works philosophical drawings executed in oil on cardboard. They show his reflections about the world and man’s place in it, about his own worth and the long path that has led him to his present state.

Upon finishing art school in Crimea, Volodymyr, a boy from the Urals, gave up his brushes and paints for ten years. He felt he could not create without gaining an understanding of what the true sense of life is. The path was long and somewhat paradoxical. He tried his hand at many jobs: he was a radiotechnician, a sailor, a carpenter and an actor in the television series, “The Adventures of Royal Archer Sharp”. He played in an amateur theater and wrote songs (as a boy he studied in a music school). He took lessons in opera singing. He read much and spent time pondering. then he took a brush in hand.

He feels today that he knows all about the world and himself. Perhaps he exaggerates. Perhaps his philosophy of the world is too strange to be understood and accepted by all. This is of no importance to him. What really matters is the inner harmony that helps him create.

He shows me his works and explains them (if it is possible to explain a work of art). I look at them and think: what is a painter? How does his personality correlates with his art? Is it smaller or larger than his work? Volodymyr’s explanation is sometimes confusing and sometimes too simple to describe complex things. Maybe it is not necessary at all, as his pictures provide answers to many questions.

In your pictures watches grow on trees like apples. And then fall.

I made a series of works in which I tried to depict time. Elusive and invisible, it nonetheless leaves deep traces on everything. This series is called Harvest Time. The time is ripe.

The time is ripe for what?

Well, it depends on what you have been thinking or planning. Everybody has his own time.

Your time is ripe for what?

I think for building up (or maybe keeping is a more precise word) a great love in my soul. Love is something we all need. It is easy to achieve but hard to retain. Only few people have learned how to do it. Sometimes I cannot do it either. But I have learned to know the moment when I feel I might lose love.

What is your first reaction when you feel you are losing love?

Well, I try to focus on this moment in order to perceive its meaning. And when I begin to feel this “sinking” sensation, I know how to stop it. This problem can be tackled either in an aggressive or friendly way. My belief is that there are no reasons for one to feel unhappy and miserable. Man is born to be happy. One has only to understand this.

Most people complain that they are unhappy.

That’s the whole point. Man is looking for the sense of his own existence, reads wise books, but does not want to go farther and apply all the knowledge he derives from books to his own life. We all know how we ought to behave and talk but rarely use it in our everyday life. We seek purpose in our own coming into this world and not the sense of life as such. As soon as we perceive the sense of life in general, our own day-to-day existence acquires meaning. If you have managed to perceive the sense of life on earth, your own existence would blend harmoniously into its scheme. And then everything becomes clear and simple.

In what is the sense of your life?

In love. And my pictures are a manifestation of love. The painting “Come In” depicts a boundless steppe with the open door in the middle of it. The steppe symbolizes man’s life. He travels it, doing his daily work, and all of a sudden he finds himself facing the necessity to make a choice. Walk into an open door and your life will change. For better or worse, man does not know. One man will enter without hesitation, the other will pass by without even noticing the door. Still another will pause before the door to ponder whether he should come in or not. Sooner or later life forces all of us make a choice.

It takes courage from man to change his life. Does one have to be exasperated beyond endurance to act decisively?

Man’s intellect controls his actions.

Many people trust their intuition or act on impulse...

Intuition is the highest form of intellect. In the picture “Come In” I wanted to show how important for man is his ability to make the right choice. He who has never made a choice in life is a rusting machine.

My other picture “A Dream That Will Never Come True” shows a rotten ship with the drooping sails. Everybody has a dream that will never come true.

Never go against yourself, or you’ll risk to destroy your inner harmony.

If a dream has not come true, who is to be blamed? Man or his fate?

It’s man’s fault if he has done nothing to realize his dream. But if he has tried hard but failed, that’s his fate. Our life course is predetermined by fate 80% and only 20% depends on our will.

So what’s the point in saying that the realization of our dreams depends upon our perseverance?

We still have that 20%. Look at yourself. It happened that you were born a woman, at a particular time, and in Ukraine. Now you can make your life happy or screw it up and turn it into a mess. The choice is yours. And it depends entirely on you whether your choice is a success or a failure. If you go against yourself, you’ll lose. The same rule governs the process of creation. Art is harmony. And if an artist goes contrary his beliefs, he will eventually destroy harmony within himself and in his works.

Here is a picture called “A Cash Register”. Set amid a limitless field, the cash register looks incongruous, as an open space has always been identified with man’s freedom. The cash register reminds us of money which is a limitation on our freedom. Here in the field it is useless as it is on a deserted island. But in the places where we live money is indispensable because it buys the things we need to sustain our lives.

A watch in a plate, in a goblet... “Time to Eat”. Time as a staple. To catch time on a fork has always been a cherished dream of a mortal man.

Time is merciless: it creates, changes, and destroys. It can change man beyond recognition. This is why our earthly life is short so that we do not have much time to get used to material boons and comforts.

People nonetheless grow used to them in the course of their lives.

That is why we must die in order to cleanse our souls, to release ourselves from our earthly sins and then return again renewed.

“Catch a Butterfly” depicts a women with a butterfly-net. Someone has covered her eyes with his hands. Who is he?

Someone or maybe something that wants to prevent her from catching the butterfly. The butterfly is a symbol. We all are trying to catch something, often with our eyes closed. Or perhaps her covered eyes show her inner state.

Why do you often depict people in a Harlequin’s cap?

Man is a buffoon, a puppet whose actions are controlled by someone more powerful.

Why do all the images in your pictures have long faces?

Honestly speaking, I don’t know. Maybe because saints in icons have always been portrayed with long faces. I think such images are more inspired. They seem to have a stronger bond with the cosmos. Well, at least this is the way I feel.

A couple: a woman and a man hugging each other. Is this also a symbol?

A man and a woman have merged in an embrace to make one whole. Their eyes are closed. They are engrossed in each other, oblivious of everything around them. They are united by a strong spiritual bond. They feel so good together. And this is the highest moment in the relationship between man and woman. Even nature stands still as if it is afraid of destroying the inner harmony between them. Have a closer look at the picture and you’ll hear how silent is the scene around them.

And this picture shows the same couple, but their eyes are open. Oblivious to the world around her, her eyes are still on him, but he has already averted his face from her. The harmony is ruined. The bond is broken. He does not know that retribution is at hand. As he tears himself from her, they will never be able to share again the joy of togetherness. I think any man would like to stay forever in this blissful state, but the outside world always intrudes and he has to open his eyes.

Your works are so unusual that they make the viewer pause and ponder. Perhaps it’s because your works are based on such crucial themes as love and time. You create your pictures according to your own laws. Fishes and people fly. A buffoon is man in general rather than a specific person. An oak or pine is more than just a tree. It personifies human characteristics. Your artistic manner calls for a very careful selection of themes, images, painting techniques. In a word, there is nothing accidental in your works. Is that why you do not like Realism?

Realism contains a large element of the accidental. The realistic manner of representation is alien to my art, because it is too straightforward and unimaginative. To go to great pains in order to make an exact copy of a visible object and then call it art is what Realism is in my understanding. Doing a portrait, a painter faithful to a realistic style accurately depicts his model, even how a tuff of his hair falls. In such a portrait a viewer will never be able to see the innermost feelings of the person depicted in the portrait. Sometimes I compare my art with that of a film director: even an insignificant thing might inspire me to create a make-believe world and to populate it with subjects and objects. My paintings talk silently with the viewer like a mime.

Is it possible that an artist can create beautiful works but be a villain in real life?

I don’t think so. Someone cannot create in one place and destroy in the other, because creation and destruction are two opposite things. The other thing is possible. I know quite a few artists who are learned people who have been awarded with the title of a people’s artist but they have no talent to create. I would divide all people into consumers and creators. Consumers of material comforts are slaves of conventionalities, their habits, or someone’s thoughts and opinions. Consumers of spiritual values are freer because they consume harmony and become filled with it. Talent is a mechanism that is set to motion by one’s psyche, critical mind, and energy. Talent is something that urges man to act. God has created man to be a creator himself. However, talent and genius are different things. A man of genius is endowed with the power to solve problems, to reach beyond the limits of the unknown. For example, genius has invented the bicycle, and talent has only improved it, by changing details but leaving the basic principle untouched. Talent is unable to surpass the unknown. It can only improve the solution to a problem. Genius cannot be stopped. Put him into jail, and he will turn its walls into canvases for painting. Genius has the power to deal successfully with problems, talent can only solve a concrete task. Problems come from within matter, while tasks are something superficial.

Here’s another example. Two people watched the same performance. One liked it and the other didn’t. And they began to argue, though there is no point in their arguing. Because one is a creator and the other a consumer. The creator immediately feels the absence of harmony in the performance. Such things often happen among artists. I say this not to hurt anyone’s feelings. I don’t want to say that consumers are bad or unnecessary people. We need them, because without them the names of creators and their works would have sunk into the Lethe. It is consumers who collect their creations, piece by piece, and store them for the coming generations to admire. Besides, you can hardly find a pure consumer or a pure creator.

And what are you?

I’m a talent. There have been times in my life when I felt I had exhausted all my creative energy. True, a little rest has been usually enough for me to restore my energy and bolster my spirits. Sometimes, a good song, a verse, or an interesting thought (mine or someone else’s) makes me feel good again. When I am feeling low, I like to watch Tarkovsky’s movie, “The Sacrifice”. Several times I tried to watch it the next day when my spirits improved and I just couldn’t. One cannot watch this film when in a normal condition. I read mostly scientific and philosophical literature. I stopped reading fiction long ago. Sometimes I feel as if some force urges me to go outside. Then I go downtown, come to a bookstand and find a book I have been looking for months. It has happened many times. Man is sent many good things by heaven. Only he isn’t always ready to accept them.

Can a talented man reach the state of a genius?

I don’t know. But I know that different people have a different “ceiling” on their ability to create, and it can be raised. I’ll try to explain what I mean. Let’s assume that a man’s bodily mass is 100 and the mass of a task he is to address is half that. Then he will never be able to raise his creative ceiling. But when the masses of the creator and his task are equal, he will do his utmost to accomplish it. If he succeeds, his ceiling will go up. He grows beyond himself.

What if the mass of a task is bigger than 100?

Talent will never undertake such a task, because he knows that it is bigger than he, that it is beyond his powers. A genius can deal with any task. I tell you much depends on the family in which a talent was raised. Johann Sebastian Bach was destined to become an outstanding composer, because he was raised in the Bach family. Before him there had been four generations of Bachs who produced good musicians but no genius. Nothing happens on earth without reason.

Do you believe in God?

The word “believe” can be applied to a man who is not certain whether God exists or not. If one knows that there is God, then this certainty becomes knowledge rather than belief. I know that God exists. It is He who created everything on earth. He is all. He is onmipresent. It is people who have belittled the significance of this great truth by dividing it into hosts of different religions. God is love. And the world is based on love. Neither hatred nor war can destroy it. Love is the theme of all my pictures, even the one that depicts the cash register: after all human freedom and spiritual slavery are part of the problem of love.

Is this the message of your picture showing two sail boats on a frying pan that are firing at one another?

Exactly. This picture is named “Life Together.” The two boats represent two nations, two parties, two anything. They share a small space and have nothing to divide between themselves. Yet, they try hard to destroy each other. An analogy can be drawn between this picture and marriage.

Whose marriage? Yours?

I wouldn’t say so. Mine is a good marriage. My wife is an architect. We have two children: a six-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. My wife understands me.

Then why do you live separately? You live in a dorm in Simferopol, and she with the children in Saky.

This is a painful question for both of us. We see each other regularly. I cannot move to Saky for good, because the conditions are not good there for my work. To create, I have to be alone. I cannot stand living with the same person in one room for more than three days. That’s my character. And in the dorm I have a whole room to myself. Once I start, I can work on a picture round-the-clock, without holidays and days-off. If I had a large house with many rooms, I would have found a small nook when I could be secluded and work. I hope things will change for the better. My wife hopes so, too. A line from Yevtushenko just crossed my mind: “God, make my wife love me even if I were a beggar.” I am sure my wife would love me if I were a beggar. Although everything might happen. One should never be too sure.

Do your children like to draw?

Yes, they like to and can draw beautifully. My son is good in doing interesting compositions. He thinks he knows enough to teach his father how to draw. He says: “Daddy, don’t draw long faces. They aren’t good. Draw round ones.”

Are you happy?

Yes, I am. Nature gives man everything needed to be happy. He just has to try hard to be happy.